Saturday, June 22, 2013

I've been independently publishing my work (fiction and
non-fiction) since 2002. That was long before eBooks and the rise of indie
publishing. As a part-time author, I produced what I thought was a significant
body of work (all while working full-time and going to school part-time to
complete my doctorate and eventually earn tenure). The one thing I wasn't able to do, though, was
sell a significant number of books. Despite all of my marketing efforts, I was
never able to sell more than a few hundred copies of any of my books. I liked
to joke that I earned enough money selling books to take my husband out to
lunch at Subway once a month but it’s not far from the truth.

In the fall of 2012, I was getting extremely frustrated with
putting out what I thought were interesting books, getting a number
of glowing reviews, doing tons of promotions and books tours and still not
achieving any significant sales. So
after seeing the success of books like Easy
by Tammara Webber and Beautiful Disaster
by Jamie McGuire (new adult contemporary romances that I absolutely love), I
decided to reinvent myself and become the romance writer, Dakota Madison.

In November 2012, I joined National Novel Writing Month and decided
to try my hand at writing my first romance novel, STILL
FINE AT FORTY (which is currently on sale for $0.99 for summer beach read
season). I loved the process of writing
a book in a month so much that I didn't stop. I decided to challenge myself to
write 12 Novels in 12 Months. It’s now seven months later and I've written
seven more romance novels (all of which have either been published or will be
published this summer). The most interesting thing about this venture into the
romance genre is that I've spent very little time on marketing and have made
more money than I ever thought possible. (My first published Dakota Madison
romance, MATCHPLAY,
made several thousand sales the first week it was released before I had time
solicit reviews or even begin to market it!) I’m no longer joking about making
take-hubby-to-Subway money. My Dakota Madison romance novels have made
pay-the-mortgage money.

My lesson learned: No amount of marketing will sell books if
you’re writing stuff no one wants to read and

no marketing is necessary if
you’re writing stuff that people want to read.

So as long as people still want to read romance novels, I’ll
continue to write them!

Joe sez: There are many reasons to want to be a writer, and often these reasons overlap. Some just want to be read and don't care much about the money. Others want to make a living.

If your goal is to quit your day job and pay your bills, you're going to have to come to the realization that this is a business. That means writing for the market.

I've said, and even blogged about, having no integrity when it comes to this profession. I'm a hack, a whore, a guy whose muse is the almighty dollar.

That isn't to say I don't love what I write, or work hard to craft good stories. But when I'm writing, I write for a certain demographic that I believe will enjoy my work. I stick to genre conventions, and give readers something recognizable. I learned how to do this by reading a whole bunch of books, and watching what sells.

If your books aren't selling, change genres. I have two super-secret pen names where I've experimented with different kinds of ebooks. One is successful. One isn't. I've written mysteries, thrillers, horror, humor, sci-fi, espionage, and even paranormal romance. My sci-fi doesn't sell well. I have no idea why, because I think it's a lot of fun to write and to read. But I have to heed those numbers if I want to have a career. Eventually I will finish the Timecaster Trilogy, but only because I'm also writing things that do sell well enough that I can occasionally be self-indulgent.

All the marketing in the world won't help a book succeed if no one is interested in that book. If you have weak sales and you want to make a living, maybe it is time to try something else.

Remember the definition of insanity: doing the same thing over and over, hoping for a different outcome. If you want a different outcome, you have to do something different.